SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands 5 May 2017

'Fight antibiotic resistance - it's in your hands'

WHO urges you to focus on the fight against antibiotic resistance in the context of hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes. You can do this by supporting the 5 May 2017 calls to action. Hand hygiene is at the core of effective IPC to combat antibiotic resistance, and campaigning each year on or around 5 May is one important part of improving behaviour towards IPC best practices. This year the campaign materials are all co-branded with ‘Antibiotics, handle with care’ to demonstrate unity between antimicrobial resistance and IPC efforts.

Who we want action to be taken by:

we want health workers to clean their hands at the right times, building on hand hygiene improvement efforts made up to now;

we want chief executive officers and managers to support hand hygiene campaigning and infection prevention and control programmes, to protect patients from antibiotic-resistant infections;

we want IPC leaders to lead hand hygiene campaigning and start their journey of meeting the core components for infection prevention and control;

we want policy makers to stop antibiotic resistance spread by demonstrating national support and commitment to infection prevention.

Resources for 5 May 2017

Photograph promotional board.
For social media messaging, WHO will be using both #handhygiene and #antibioticresistance – remember to join the conversation on 5 May.

A dedicated acknowledgements web page featuring web links of those who have promoted the campaign, as well as a microsite featuring photographs posted in support of the campaign – to be launched in April.

A practical manual to support implementation of the core components for IPC programmes at national level - to be launched on 5 May.

A document outlining the strength of hand hygiene evidence in informing the core components for IPC programmes - to be launched on 5 May.